I would like to address a phenomenon that I’ve encountered numerous times at Boston University.

I remember when I was applying here that Boston University prides itself on the diversity of the student body.

I’ll admit, there are a lot of kids from other regions of the world; for example, one of my roommates is from Puerto Rico (part of the U.S. but still in my eyes it’s diverse) and one is British. Okay, you could consider that diversity, but nobody at BU really varies in the sense that we’re all privileged kids from relatively similar backgrounds. And you might say, oh I’m not like those snobby rich kids at BU, I’m here on scholarship. Still, relative to the majority of the country, we all have it cushy.

One kid may be from Saudi Arabia, one from Spain and one from Singapore, but they’re all same in the sense that they can all afford to come here and live a life of relative luxury.

You could say BU is diverse, but it’s diverse in the sense that a country club is diverse.

So, the other night I had a party and some of the guys that I work with came. It just so happens that some of the guys from work are black. As people began to arrive, I saw a lot of puzzled looks about the black guys at the party.

The best is when somebody comes in, sees them and then makes a beeline towards me or one of my roommates. They make sure to get much closer to me than the normally would. They stand there for a second, invading my personal bubble, and look around to make sure they are out of earshot: “Who are those guys.”

I don’t even have to see the direction that they are subtly trying to gesture towards.
It’s the guys who don’t quite fit in. It’s not that they’re black, but it’s more their whole demeanor. There are black kids at BU, but they like the rest of the population (myself included) wear tight pants and beatnik clothing. Bluetooths and hooded sweatshirts adorned with the image of Ben Franklin are not the norm at BU (unless it’s an ironic).

I’m not condemning, because I understand that the student body at Boston University though diverse, simultaneously maintains a sentiment of homogony.

It’s funny because by the end of the night, the guys that I work with were down with the kids rocking the skin-tight spandex looking jeans and Weezer glasses. It’s interesting how dress or more broadly, material culture can become a point of pigeonholing.